Solid Modeling Question - Pipe Cutouts

[cberg]

 

What is the best (quickest) way to "cut out" these sections of pipe so that the cuts make sense from a fabrication point of view.  If I use any of the booleen solids commands, I get leftover pieces of geometry which are not easily cleaned up.

 

I can make solids that correspond to the pipe shapes that can act as cutout geometry.  But that's a lot of extra 3D work.

Just curious how others would approach this type of modeling situation.  There has to be something i am not considering. 

 

 

Pipe Cutouts.vwx

 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Can you explain a bit more.  Is it the top railing that you don't want a hole in?

[cberg]

I want the result to look like the two pipes on the right of the image above.  I have not figured out how to achieve that using the geometry highlighted in orange.

 

To fabricate the rails you would notch the bottom of the top rail, and create a cutout "fish mouth" for the vertical post.  The only way I can do this, is to rebuild each rail section with a solid throwaway piece.  I was wondering whether there was another command that I wasn't considering.

Edited August 20, 2024 by cberg

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Because the pipes are hollow, I don't think there is a one step solution for Solids.

 

One solution.

 

Make your tubes hollow, as in no thickness.  Then go to the 3D Power Pack module and "Stitch and Trim".  This will leave a separate intersected piece that can be deleted immediately.

 

Then shell the pipes "Inside" the thickness you need.

[jmcewen]

In my experience from a manufacturing standpoint, the end of the vertical pipe is what would typically be notched and the top pipe would be continuous. You would use a tube notcher to to nibble away a round chunk of the end of the pipe that would fit snugly around the top pipe.  If your shop is well equipped or a holesaw if you are less well equipped.  If I  were to do it 

• extrude your top pipe as a full cylinder rather than a shell to start with,
• use it to subtract from the vertical pipe,
• then shell solids on the top pipe after all subtraction operations were complete.

If you actually want to have the miter actions, this could all be done with the split tool in line split mode.  The notches should be planar slices unless your pipes are of 2 different diameters.

• select your vertical pipe and look at it from the side
• Use split tool to remove the top diagonals from the pipe
• select the top pipe
• split the top pipe along the centerline of the vertical pipe
• select one of the 2 resultant top pipe halves and use the split tool to complete the miter along the same line you used to miter the vertical.
• repeat for the other resultant half of the top pipe.
• rejoin the top pipe with add solids.

 

 

[Jeff Prince]

32 minutes ago, cberg said:

I can make solids that correspond to the pipe shapes that can act as cutout geometry.  But that's a lot of extra 3D work.

 

It's not a lot of work.  Simply copy your railing and convert them to solid bars instead of pipes.  You can then use those to cut your pipes and not have the remneants left when cutting with pipe geometry. 

[cberg]

Thank you all.  I will investigate all methods above. 

 

@jmcewen The production manager was looking into notching the bottom of the rail to help the fitters know where to place the vertical posts.  The cuts save a lot of layout math/time).  And since the steel pieces are now cut automatically, it's not that hard to deliver the bottom notches, provided I can deliver a proper STP file shape.  (We are experimenting...). But the split tool method is intriguing.

 

@Jeff Prince I had started this model with the pipe thickness extruded / extrude along path, which was maybe the start of the problem.  Starting with a solid extrude may have made this job easier.

 

@VIRTUALENVIRONS I will think about your zero thickness solution.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2024 by cberg

[jmcewen]

18 minutes ago, Jeff Prince said:

It's not a lot of work.  Simply copy your railing and convert them to solid bars instead of pipes.  You can then use those to cut your pipes and not have the remneants left when cutting with pipe geometry. 

And after doing it a few times, it will all feel like one step anyway.

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

@cberg  All of the solutions presented are good and you may find that you use all three methods and/or develop one of you own.  If you do, please report.

 

 

[Jeff Prince]

9 minutes ago, cberg said:

@Jeff Prince I had started this model with the pipe thickness extruded / extrude along path, which was maybe the start of the problem.  Starting with a solid extrude may have made this job easier.

that’s ok, you can edit the profile of your copied extrusions or EAPs and replace the poly tube profile with a simple circle.   Easy peasy

[jmcewen]

You can make a single subtracting object at the appropriate height for the bottom of the top rail, ,then duplicate along path if the verticals are evenly spaced.  if not, just cop and paste from plan view (assuming the rail is level.)  the subtracting object could just be a cube turned on one edge since it is ultimately a simple miter cut.

 

The verticals can be done once and copy pasted the same way.  If the rail is not at consistent heights, do this anyway, and then use push/pull to drag the bottom to the ground.  I frame with push pull all the time.

 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

@cberg You are getting your money's worth on this thread, lots of good info.  This is one I thought of after.  It handles a lot of intersections at once.  You will notice that after I do the Stitch and Trim, I can delete all the intersections.

Short video/tutorial below

 

 

 

 

[cberg]

The most accurate way to achieve the cutout shape is to use section solids with a polyline that hits the pipe edges and the desired offset.